


the light at the end of the world

by aelins



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Book 3: Heir of Fire, Boys Kissing, But mostly fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, Kissing, M/M, Magical Boys, Multi, albiet grudgingly, re-imagining of Heir of Fire, rowan and chaol friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27671522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelins/pseuds/aelins
Summary: “To whatever end,” Rowan says, over the joyous cheering.“To whatever end, my love.”A re-imagining of the end of Heir of Fire, if the series had ended with HOF.
Relationships: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn, Dorian Havilliard/Chaol Westfall
Kudos: 20





	the light at the end of the world

**Author's Note:**

> This contains gratuitous fluff. Enjoy.

The arrow froze midflight and dropped to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces. Chaol stared at Dorian in mute horror as his friend’s eyes glowed a deep, raging blue, and the prince snarled at the king, 

“Don’t you touch him.” The ice spread across the room, up the legs of the shocked guards, freezing over Sorscha’s blood, and Dorian got to his feet. 

He raised both hands, and light shimmered along his fingers, a cold breeze whipping through his hair. “I knew you had it, boy—” the king started, standing, but Dorian threw out a hand and the king was blasted into his chair by a gust of frozen wind, the window behind him shattering. Wind roared into the room, drowning out all sound. 

All sound except Dorian’s words as he turned to Chaol, his hands and clothes soaked with Sorscha’s blood. “Run. And when you come back …” 

The king was getting to his feet, but another wave of Dorian’s magic slammed into him, knocking him down. 

There were tears staining Dorian’s bloody cheeks now. “When you come back,” the prince said, “burn this place to the ground.”

A wall of crackling black hurtled toward them from behind the throne. “Go,” Dorian ordered, turning toward the onslaught of his father’s power.

Light exploded from Dorian, blocking out the wave, and the entire castle shook. People screamed, and Chaol’s knees buckled. For a moment, he debated making a stand with his friend, right there and then. 

But he knew that this had been the other trap. One for Aedion and Aelin, one for Sorscha. 

And this one—this one to draw out Dorian’s power. Dorian had known it, too. Known it, and still walked into it so Chaol could escape—to find Aelin and tell her what had happened here today. 

Someone had to get out. Someone had to survive. He looked at his friend, perhaps for the last time, and said what he had always known, from the moment they’d met, when he’d understood that the prince was his brother in soul. 

“I love you.” Dorian merely nodded, eyes still blazing, and lifted his hands again toward his father. 

Lover. 

King. 

As another wave of the king’s power filled the room, Chaol shoved through the still-frozen guards and fled.

*~*~*

Dorian was kicking himself. He’d killed the king, killed his father. He’d scrubbed his hands raw, trying to get Sorcha’s blood off him. Trying to get Chaol’s horror at what he truly was--out from under his nails, out of his very marrow. 

But Chaol loved him, and that was the beginning. 

The beginning of a thousand shared nights, a thousand needs fulfilled. 

Chaol was gone though, and he wasn’t any closer to finding him, and the nightmares, oh, the nightmares of what could happen to his love. He could barely stand being in his expansive bedroom. Couldn’t look at his new bed--he’d had his father’s burned to ash. 

Ash--ash and fire, that’s what this all boiled down to. Aelin had made her choice, and when there’s a soft knock on the door, he expects a guard or a council member--someone to scorn his name. 

“Hi,” Aelin Ashryver Galathynius breathes. 

And he’s crushing her to his chest, tears in his eyes, joyful burning tears, that are his only way of showing his thanks--for finding her courage and helping him find his own. 

Aelin looks at Dorian, now a King, “I found Chaol, he was leaving to find me, he’s just in the kitchens, I think he’s trying to inhale as much food as he can.” She gives a nervous laugh, and then explains her shyness, “Chaolnever told me--never explained that you two were--” 

“Together?” Dorian adds softly. 

Aelin nods, and he can see the medallion of Orynth glittering on her neck, and Goldryn strapped to her back. They were all much changed, and a glittering engagement ring shines from her ring finger. 

“Rowan is waiting for me, but I thought I should see the new king, and deliver a message.” 

Dorian eyes her, and nods, “What would the Queen of Terassen wish to convey to her mortal enemy?” 

“Only that we are not enemies, not now, not after Chaol told me everything. Not after you killed the King,” Aelin chokes on a sob, “We were never enemies, Dorian, and you are my greatest friend--after Chaol.” 

This earns a laugh from the young king. 

Dorian hears armor clinking in the hall and leaps into Chaol’s arms, their foreheads touching, kissing gently. 

Aelin smiles at them both, they deserved to be happy--to be whole, something in her pricked at the idea that it had not been her to kill the Tyrant that had killed her parents. 

But it was Dorian’s birthright. 

And she wouldn’t deprive the two men she loved as platonic soulmates one more thing. 

Rowan appears in the hallway and gives Chaol and Dorian--now full-on making out, a wide birth. 

“You ready Fireheart?” Rowan’s teeth, his perfectly white hair, all gleamed in the light of the moon. 

She was the fire breathing bitch queen. 

She was Aelin, and he was Rowan. 

Her two best friends are married on a spring day and she’s Dorian’s best lady, breaking with tradition for best man. Rowan, who’d grown close with Chaol and the monarch is begrudgingly standing at Chaol’s side when they tie the knot. 

It’s a big ceremony and Aelin is happy no one sees her weeping, both her and Rowan hold each other and cry happily as the Kings of Adarlan are wed. 

“To whatever end,” Rowan says, over the joyous cheering. 

“To whatever end, my love.”

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me, i’d love to hear from you on social media [tumblr ](https://danaanruhn.tumblr.com) / [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/pincelings_) / [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/danaanruhn) / [tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@ruhns)


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